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The Supreme Court on Monday put on hold — for now — a lower court ruling that had said a federal law regulating the safety of horse racing was unconstitutional.
The law, Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, was signed by former President Trump in 2020 and aimed to improve the safety and integrity of horse racing following recent scandals related to doping and deaths of race horses.
The legislation set uniform national standards.
Federal circuit courts have split on various legal challenges to the law, with the 5th U.S. Circuit ruling in July that the legislation’s enforcement mechanism ran afoul of the Constitution by giving governmental authority to a private group.
“The statute empowers the Authority to investigate, issue subpoenas, conduct searches, levy fines, and seek injunctions — all without the [Federal Trade Commission’s] say-so. That is forbidden by the Constitution,” read the 5th Circuit’s ruling.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority asked the justices to step in and block the 5th Circuit’s decision from taking effect so that the law would remain intact across the country while litigation continues.
The organization warned that if the high court let the 5th Circuit ruling take effect, it would sew chaos into the centuries-old sport.
“It would plunge horseracing back into a confusing web of varying enforcement protocols, disrupt the entrenched expectations of a national industry that has adjusted to the federal reforms over two plus years, and imperil the human and equine athletes who have been protected by the successful programs Congress directed,” the filing read.
“The data are clear: more horses would die and more cheaters would prosper,” it claimed.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who oversees requests out of the 5th Circuit — which encompasses Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi — granted the request to stay the appeals court’s ruling for now.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority plans to file a petition for the justices to review the case.
The legal battle is Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority v. National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.
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